Light emitting components, and in particular solid state light emitting components, are more and more used in electronic devices. In a context of electrical power saving solid state light emitting components have proven to be able to deliver high amounts of light with low electrical power consumption. Further, technologies of solid state manufacturing have developed in the recent years to a point that light emitting components can now be obtained with a size of a few hundreds of micro-meters in the case of Surface Mounted components—SMCs—and even with a size of a few tens of micro-meters in the case of bare chips or dies. This has allowed high amounts of light emitting elements to be placed in a same appliance such as for example a lighting bulb or a lighting tube for domestic use.
Surface mount technology—SMT—is a method for constructing electronic circuits in which the components—usually called surface-mounted components or SMCs—are mounted directly onto the surface of a circuit such as a printed circuit board—PCB—. An electronic device so made is called a surface mounted device—SMD—. In the industry it has largely replaced the through hole technology construction method of attaching components with wire leads into holes in the circuit board. A surface mounted device is hence a type of circuit having electronic components mounted directly onto its surface.
An SMT component is usually smaller than its through-hole-wired counterpart because it has either smaller leads or no leads at all. It may have short pins or leads of various styles, flat contacts, a matrix of solder balls, or terminations on the body of the component.
Surface mount technology was developed in the 1960s and became widely used in the late 1980s. Part of those components were mechanically redesigned to have small metal tabs or end caps that could be directly soldered to the surface of a PCB. Components became much smaller and component placement on both sides of a board became far more common with surface mounting, allowing much higher circuit densities. Often only some solder joints hold the SMCs or a dot of adhesive may as well affix the SMC to the circuit.
Surface mounted devices (SMDs) are usually made physically small and lightweight for these different reasons. Surface mounting lends itself well to a high degree of automation, reducing labor cost and greatly increasing production rates. SMDs can be one-quarter to one-tenth the size and weight, and one-half to one-quarter the cost of equivalent through-hole-wired parts.
In a context of multiplying information devices such as smart phones, flat screen televisions, intelligent automobile conductor boards, and many other apparatuses that may visually display information, light emitting components are more and more adopted in everyday appliances thanks to their low size and low consumption.
Despite the many progresses made in the field of light emitting components, these components remain however a source of heat and hence there remains a need for handling dissipation of heat in devices where such elements are used. This constraint is still more accurate when a large number of light emitting components are used in a same product.
The invention aims at proposing a solution so as to ease thermal transfers away from a light emitting component in a circuit and hence enable an enhanced heat dissipation out of a circuit incorporating a light emitting component. The invention also aims at proposing such a solution that remains adapted to an industrial process and does not induce heavy costs when implemented in such process.
This goal is achieved according to the invention thanks to a method of manufacturing a circuit incorporating a solid state light emitting component, the method comprising:                providing an insulating layer,        producing at least one through hole in the insulating layer,        providing a conductive layer,        bonding a main surface of the conductive layer to the insulating layer,        positioning at least one solid state light emitting component in the hole of the insulating layer and connecting this component to the conductive layer.        
The invention also relates to a circuit incorporating a solid state light emitting component, the circuit comprising an insulating layer, said insulating layer having two opposite sides and at least one hole extending from one side to the other side of the insulating layer, the circuit also comprising a conductive layer, a main surface of the conductive layer being bonded to the insulating layer, characterized in that the solid state light emitting component is placed in the said at least one hole of the insulating layer and the solid state light emitting component is connected to the conductive layer.
On the different figures, the same reference signs designate like or similar elements.